Stadium search at the Union Gurten for the game of the year

2023-08-01 19:08:00

“Union Gurten celebrated a big football festival in Ried,” headlined the OÖN after the cup game against Red Bull Salzburg on August 30, 2022. The Gurtner bid the Austrian champions and Champions League participants in the second round of the ÖFB Cup a great fight. Around 4,000 fans came to the game of the 1,200-inhabitant community of Gurten in the Innviertel Arena in Ried.

The Gurtner hope for a similar football festival in this cup season. Luck meant well with the regional league club. With Rapid, the team of coach Peter Madritsch meets what is probably the most popular football club in the country at home. In addition, Ante Bajic, a former Gurten kicker, plays for the Austrian record champions. The game date is between September 26th and 28th. “It’s unbelievable. After Salzburg last year, we can play against the next very attractive opponent this year. The team, the officials and the entire club have more than earned it through their hard work. Everyone works so hard for our day after day Club. That’s why I’m all the happier,” says Madritsch.

Union Gurten celebrated a big football festival in Ried

Lots going on in the Innviertel Arena

Where this match will be played is still completely open. Not in the Park21 Arena in Gurten, that’s almost certain. “We can brush that off,” says Madritsch. The Gurtners have given the Innviertel Arena as an alternative stadium. However, it is unlikely that the SV Ried stadium will actually be able to be played.

Rieder is expected to play Bundesliga side Wolfsberger AC in the ÖFB Cup on Tuesday, September 26th. The second division home game against Horn will take place on the following Friday (September 29). In addition, the second team of SV Ried has planned a regional league home game in the Innviertel Arena on September 30th. “The current status is that it’s not possible. With three home games planned this week, we are at the absolute limit ourselves,” says SV Ried Managing Director Rainer Wöllinger. In the agreement with Gurten, it was explicitly stated that the stadium could only be made available if it was compatible with personal needs. Unfortunately that is not the case now. The same applies to the Austria Salzburg team, which also indicated the stadium in Ried as an alternative stadium. Salzburg was drawn to arch-rival Red Bull Salzburg.

The hopes in Gurten that it will be possible to play in the Innviertel Arena have not yet been completely given up. On Tuesday evening after the editorial deadline, this topic should have been addressed at a meeting of the SV Ried Presidium.

Roitinger-Stadion als Option?

“Of course we would love to play in the Innviertel Arena,” says Gottfried Weinberger, chairman of Union Gurten. Possible alternatives might be the Klaus Roitinger Stadium in Ried (old stadium) or the stadium in Braunau.